Fertility experts have hailed the project as significant but stress the fact that it is unknown whether the transplants will result in healthy babies.Shweta Sharma, 30, smiles as she feels the baby inside her kicking. Less than a year ago, the south Delhi resident and her husband had started looking up adoption agencies, having given up hopes for a biological child.

Sharma had not only failed to conceive despite two costly cycles of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) but also spent a "nightmarish" week hospitalized because of ovarian hyperstimulation -a side effect of multiple fertility injections. "Doctors had to drain out the fluid that had filled in my abdomen. It was so painful," she recounts.

But when Sharma learnt about 'natural IVF', a method with no drugs or jabs, she decided to try one last time. Two weeks after the treatment, Sharma missed her period and a test confirmed pregnancy . "I still can't believe it," says the public relations professional, who is due in November.

Sharma is among a growing number of women opting for natural cycle IVF. This, incidentally, is the method by which the world's first 'test tube baby' Louise Brown was conceived in 1978. The treatment was abandoned soon after because of its poor success rate and replaced by the drug-intensive IVF that is typically used today because of better results. Every year, more than 3.7 million babies are born worldwide with the help of fertility treatments.

Now the old-school approach is making a comeback due to the preference for 'all things natural' and because its success rate has improved owing to advances in ultrasound technology and superior medical expertise.

In standard IVF, women are administered injections daily for at least 12 days to stimulate their ovaries to produce 12 to 14 eggs simul taneously . The doctors create multiple embryos in the laboratory and transfer the best two or three to the patient's uterus to increase chances of pregnancy . That's why a substantial proportion of IVF patients give birth to twins or triplets.

Natural IVF, on the other hand, works within a woman's normal monthly cycle to collect the one egg her ovaries naturally release. The single resultant embryo is implanted in her uterus so there is no chance of multiple births.

"My career is important, which is why I've always wanted just one child," says Sharma, adding that this is "another reason" natural IVF was perfect for her. Mumbai based chartered accountant Sweety Kapoor, who conceived through natural IVF two months back, agrees. "I practice yoga and live medicine-free as far as possible so I am glad I had this option," says the 32-year-old.

For the young and old

Lately, several infertility clinics in India have started offering natural IVF along with two other 'gentle' methods, modified natural IVF and mild IVF. These involve lower doses of drugs for a shorter duration compared to the standard procedure.

At Mumbai's Rotunda clinic run by Dr Gautam Allahbadia, 50% of patients now undergo 'IVF-Lite', a mild IVF programme, instead of the conventional one. The International Fertility Centre in Delhi conducts natural IVF for around eight patients, while Srushti clinic in Chennai treats at least 15 patients every month with the 'mild' method."Many more women ask for this treatment but not everyone is eligible," says Dr Divya Sivaraman, fertility specialist at Srushti.

Candidates for the 'gentler' methods include very young and older women. Women over 38 are recommended natural IVF as they often produce only two-three eggs even when given the "highest doses" of stimulant drugs, explains Dr Anjali Malpani, director of Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai.She performs natural IVF for at least one older woman a month.

For some women, natural IVF is one of several available options, for others it is the only one. These include cancer patients and women with endometriosis (a uterus disorder) as their conditions can get compromised by hormonal drugs. Doctors also recommend natural IVF to patients who have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) as they are at higher risk for hyperstimulation -some producing as many as 50 eggs after injections.

Without the side effects

An additional benefit of the natural way is that it is more affordable.While conventional IVF costs nearly Rs 2 lakh, natural and mild IVF costs about Rs 90,000 and Rs 1.2 lakh respectively .

"Even if it takes four attempts to get pregnant with natural IVF , the overall cost is less than if the woman underwent two rounds of the drug-intensive treatment," says Dr Rita Bakshi, IVF specialist at the International Fertility Centre. Gurgaon-based infertility specialist Dr Richika Shukla offers natural IVF for Rs 30,000 to women from lowincome families.

Patients also find natural IVF less stressful. "When a woman goes through a painful and agonizing course of injections and still fails to conceive, she is shattered. With natural IVF, she knows in advance that we are banking on just one egg," says Dr Malpani.

Dr Sivaraman reports of busy professionals from Bengaluru and Mumbai flying in to her Chennai centre for mild IVF because it's less time-consuming. "They fly down on day seven of their cycle, complete the treatment over the next ten days and return to work," she says.Standard IVF patients need nearly 20 clinic visits over a month.

Research published in the 2007 issue of Lancet found Mild IVF equally successful as standard IVF , with four out of ten women getting pregnant.

Despite the encouraging results, most fertility clinics across the country don't offer natural IVF. Experts say this is because the procedure is high maintenance -a "very skilled doctor" is required and staff needs to be available round the clock to retrieve the egg from a patient's ovaries as soon as it matures."Sometimes a natural IVF requires more attempts to achieve a pregnancy. So, the doctors worry that their advertised 'success rate' will drop," says Dr Malpani.

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A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao passed the order while acting on a PIL filed by Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed who complained that lakhs of medicines were being sold on the internet every day without much regulation, posing a huge risk to patients and doctors alike.